TELEVISION QUARTERLY
Plowing the Field
of Dreams
What is fueling the exploding growth of innovation and
production in television’s online future. | By John V. Pavlik
T
elevision is in the midst of a
new stage of inspiration and
innovation. The advent of both
digital technology and the
Internet have led to a radical explosion
in the development and distribution
of television, or video, in an online
environment.
The transformation of television
involves at least ten dimensions, four of
which were revealed in the first part of this
article in the Fall 2006 issue of Television
Quarterly: the medium of online delivery,
the devices for accessing, displaying or
watching video, the audience or users of
video and the producers of video. On the
following pages we examine video content,
the distributors, financers and regulators
of video, the digital technologies that
are fueling the explosive growth in
video production and the inventors and
innovators of the next generation of
television.
One of ten Americans watches
broadcast television programs online,
according to the Conference Board
Consumer Internet barometer study
released last October. The national
survey of 10,000 households across the
U.S. shows that news is the most popular
form of online programming viewed.
The reasons people watch TV online
are personal convenience and avoiding
commercials. Yet few indicate they would
be willing to pay for online television
programs.
Video Content Itself
In many cases, video content online is
no different than that available through
conventional delivery systems. In fact,
in many cases television stations and
network news operations produce the
same type of television news reports that
they produce for over-the-air or cable
distribution, but deliver it instead via the
Internet.
Online video is often the same shows,
programs, movies and the like, simply
made available online and viewed on
computers, hand-helds or what-ever else
the viewer likes. This can be valuable
access to archival video material that might
otherwise be difficult to find. Among the
exemplars of this type is the collection of
video interviews conducted since 1956
by Richard D. Heffner, long-time host of
the public television program, The Open
Mind, the longest-running interview
program on television. Historian and
University Professor of Communication
and Public Policy at Rutgers University,
17
Heffner continues to conduct these
important interviews and the program is
still on the air. An increasingly complete
archive of the program is available online
at www.theopenmind.tv, with video,
transcripts and more. A visit to the
site on May 12, 2006 offered access to
Heffner’s classic interview with Malcolm
X, conducted June 12, 1963.
Supplementing such archival video
programming is extensive live streaming
video of programs at various arts,
educational and cultural institutions such
as the Museum of Television & Radio.
Illustrative is the May 15 web cast of a live
seminar hosted by the Museum on the
popular television series, Boston Legal.
The seminar featured live commentary
from the program’s cast and creators,
including stars William Shatner and
Candice Bergen as well as creator and
executive producer David E. Kelley.
In many cases, original video
production is designed specifically for
online distribution. One very good
illustration of such original video
production customized for the online
environment is Viacom’s mtvU, the
original broadband web site produced
by MTV for college and university
students. Among the best video reports
yet produced by mtvU is “Translating
Genocide: Three Students Journey to
Sudan,” a 20-minute original online
video produced in documentary style by
three U.S. college students who traveled
to Africa. Premiered online on April 7,
2005, the video featured an on-location
examination of the genocide in Darfur,
supplemented by original photographs
online (www.mtvu.com).
Increasingly, major media companies
are experimenting with original content
produced for new media devices. In the
case of News Corporation’s Fox Television,
the network has commissioned a cellphone serial drama 24 Conspiracy dubbed
a mobisode (i.e., a mobile episode).
Director Eric Young was hired to produce
24 one-minute mobile episodes for a spinoff of the hit series 24. He was reportedly
most vexed by the display of bullet holes,
which are not uncommon on the violent
drama series. Mr. Young learned that
making video for a pocket-sized screen is
quite different than producing for a 27inch television set. His solution was to
make the bullet holes extra large and use
twice as much blood to make the bullet
holes and wounds easily visible on a
cellphone screen.
W
ell known for its music videos,
MTV is also developing
original video programming
for cell phones. Its first domestic cellphone production is a series of threeminute documentary style video reports
on the world of hip hop. Starring Sway
Calloway, “Sway’s Hip-Hop Owner’s
Manual” debuted in 2006 (http://www.
nytimes.com/2006/05/28/magazine/
28mtv.html?pagewanted=all).
Another example of a provider of video
produced exclusively for mobile devices is
NBC Mobile, which is producing original
news and feature material specifically
and exclusively for hand-helds such as
cell phones (http://www.mobitv.com/).
An example is NBC Mobile’s Wine
Tasting with Ed Deitch, whose mobile
video reports have examined topics such
as new electric wine bottle openers and
new vintners. NBC Mobile also produces
a video blog (vlog) for cell phones, such
as a 3-minute December 16, 2005 report
on the Iraqi elections, or Entertainment
Buzz, a vlog on what’s hot in Hollywood,
a series 2- to 3-minute segments on
movies, celebrities and such.
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A number of news organizations are
producing original live news coverage
of breaking events delivered via the web,
including either to the desktop or to handhelds. Among them are WDEL television,
which has debuted a live online video
news program providing Delaware’s top
stories of the day. Similarly, WCBS2.com/
KCAL provided live web-exclusive video
coverage of Hurricane Katrina on August
31, 2005. Included was on-location and
in-studio video. It marked a first for this
station to go live online.
Not all the experimentation is
by familiar news organizations. The
Sherman Oaks, CA-based Gotv networks
(www.gotvnetworks.com) is making
video reports for mobile devices, with a
stated objective of tailoring video news
for viewing on two-by-two inch screens.
A four-minute December12, 2005 Gotv
report provided breaking news coverage
of Golden Globe nominations in LA,
combining still imagery with video closeups of host and producer Athenia VelizDunn.
Media organizations are also testing
the online video waters of various
television formats. Among them is the
Late Night Fox Show, an online network
talk show which on February 25, 2005
featured American Idol contestant Jon
Peter Lewis (www.Fox.com).
Consider the online video under
development at the Integrated Media
Systems Center (IMSC) at the University
of Southern California Under. Directed
by media pioneer and veteran news
executive Adam Clayton Powell III, the
IMSC is engaged in creating the next
generation of journalism technologies,
including innovative online video
applications. Through a partnership
with the MacNeil-Lehrer Productions
(MLP), the IMSC is exploring immersive,
interactive, three-dimensional audio and
video formats and tools for recording,
production and transmission of news and
information, including via the Internet
(http://viterbi.usc.edu/news/news/2006/
news_20060201.htm).
M
y partnership with Steve
Feiner, a computer professor
at Columbia University, has
produced another avenue of online
video applications. Using technology
called mobile augmented reality, video
and other multimedia is embedded into
the real world but in virtual fashion. A
user dons a mobile augmented reality
system dubbed the Mobile Journalist
Workstation (MJW). It involves a seethrough head-worn display, the Global
Positioning System (GPS) and highspeed wireless Internet access.
Via
the MJW, the user essentially enters an
immersive story called “the situated
documentary” exploring past events
narrated interactively.
My students
have produced a series of these situated
documentaries based on past events at
Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus
on the Upper West Side of Manhattan,
including the 1968 student strike, the story
of Col. Edwin Armstrong, the Columbia
engineering professor who invented FM
radio, and the prehistory of the campus
when in the mid-19th century it was
home to the Bloomingdale Asylum for the
Insane. Visitors to the campus who wear
the MJW can walk the campus and in a
sense relive the events of the past through
a virtual video exploration, seeing the
sights and sounds of the past overlaid
in translucent fashion on the campus as
it exists today. Examples are available
online at (http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/
graphics/projects/mars/mjwSd.html).
The emergence of original video
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programming for mobile devices has
not gone unnoticed by the national
organizations that recognize and award
excellence in the media. The National
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
(NATAS), for instance, in November, 2005,
announced a new category for the Emmy
Awards, a category that would recognize
outstanding original programming for
computers, cell phones and other handheld devices, including the video iPod
(Carey and Greenberg, 2006, Television
Quarterly). Academy president Peter
O. Price said 74 entries were received
from newspapers, magazines and movie
studios, the greatest number ever in
any category. “In this digital world,
everyone is capable of launching video
programming,” he said.
Notably, TV or video online is not
usually called programming, the term
usually used in television parlance. Rather,
online video is typically called content.
Online programming would refer to the
software code the runs the Internet or
other computer-based applications.
The distributors of online video
Many producers of video are simply
making their video available online
through their own web sites.
For
example, CBS News makes its video
available online at http://www.cbsnews.
com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml
20
©2002 Computer Graphics and User Interface Lab, Columbia University. Courtesy of Steven Feiner.
Backpack of the future: Experimental equipment for mobile augmented reality systems.
A much more compact system has since been created.
as do the other networks (e.g., see ABC
News video on demand at http://abcnews.
go.com/ or CNN video at www.cnn.com).
Particularly popular at the networks and
their affiliates is supplementing stories
reported on evening newscasts with
additional web video related to those
stories. One example from May 12, 2006
on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams
was a report on Broadway celebrity Maria
Friedman, star of “The Woman in White,”
who was interviewed about her battle
with breast cancer. Augmenting a brief
interview on the evening news Williams
invited viewers to visit the NBC web site
for additional video from his interview
with Friedman (http://www.msnbc.msn.
com/id/12761265/).
News media are also inclined to make
their video available through online video
aggregators. MSN video, for instance,
provides an extensive combination of
video from a variety of sources (http://
video.msn.com).
Another increasingly popular video
aggregator is Google video (http://
video.google.com/). Based in Mountain
View, California, Google groups its
video into a variety of pre-sorted
categories, including the Top 100 (most
viewed videos). High on this list last
May was the complete video from the
annual White House Correspondents
Association dinner, featuring a roast
of President Bush in 2006 http://
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4973617448770513925. This year’s dinner
drew extensive news media coverage,
particularly of a Bush impersonator
who wore a facial prosthetic to complete
his impersonation. Little attention was
paid to the politically incorrect satire of
Stephen Colbert, who was the officially
featured comedian of the night, but his
lampooning of the President is available
in its entirety on-demand online. Next
is Google Picks, which Google describes
as “a small section on Google Video that
highlights videos that have been selected
by Googlers as suggestions for cool videos
that users might want to watch. Think
about it like the ‘Staff Picks’ section at a
video store. Selection criteria may include,
among others, the following: uniqueness
of content, user value, newness to index,
seasonality, and quality of video.” Then,
there’s random, animation, comedy,
commercials, educational, movies, music
videos, news, sports and TV shows.
Google video as well as other search
engines such as Yahoo permit users to
search for video. Searching for video is
generally limited to keyword searching of
the title or text descriptions of the video,
but experimental tools are emerging that
permit searching based on video content
itself.
Nielsen/NetRatings Inc. reports that
Google drew 7.3 million unique visitors
in April, 2006, making it the fourth
largest online video provider (www.
nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_060511.
pdf -). Number one is San Mateo, CAbased YouTube (www.youtube.com),
which attracted 12.5 million unique U.S.
visitors that month. YouTube invites
individual users to upload their own
personal videos for sharing with other
interested persons. It is as much a social
networking site as a video provider, and
it may be in large part its function as a
social networking site that is drawing the
large number of unique visitors. Last
September YouTube Inc. solidified its
position as the leading video-sharing site
when it signed a deal with Warner Music
Group to air its music videos and share
advertising revenue. With its $1.65 billion
acquisition of YouTube the following
month, Google has strengthened its
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commitment to the delivery of online
video. Numbers two and three on the
online video list with more than ten and
seven million unique visitors respectively
in April are Microsoft’s MSN and News
Corp.’s MySpace.com. MySpace is also
largely a social networking site.
Many bloggers and podcasters are
also including video on their web sites
(e.g., http://www.mtv.com/podcasts/#/
podcasts/).
A number of websites
serve as aggregators or directories of
the thousands of video on blogs and
podcasts, including mefeedia (http://
mefeedia.com/), podcastvideos (http://
www.podcastvideos.org/) and vlogdir
(http://vlogdir.com). Although much
of this video can be of dubious quality,
narrow or personal interest, there are
occasional times when video blogs and
podcasts have been valuable. When the
tsunami hit Banda Ache, Indonesia, in
2004, much of the most viewed video of
the destructive impact of the video was
provided via personal video blogs (http://
www.waveofdestruction.org/?s=Phuket).
Aggregators of motion pictures
are also drawing a growing amount
of online viewers. CinemaNow and
Movielink are among the premier
movie aggregators. CinemaNow (www.
cinemanow.com) provides movies from
Sony, MGM and Lionsgate, with current
features such as Fun with Dick and Jane,
as well scores of older movies in a wide
range of categories. Movielink (www.
movielink.com) provides movies from
five studios, including Metro-GoldwynMayer Studios, Paramount Pictures, Sony
Pictures Entertainment, Universal Studios
and Warner Bros. Studios. Current
features include movies such as Brokeback
Mountain and Memories of a Geisha, as
well as a large collection of old movies.
Prices for both services range from a few
dollars to rent an older movie to $20 or
more to rent or buy a current release, with
viewing restrictions in effect. Viewers
have various payment options, including
per minute viewing for certain types of
video content (e.g., mature).
Warner
Brothers says it will make hundreds of
its films and shows available this summer
for paid download through the filesharing site BitTorrent.
Peer-to-peer
(P2P) file-sharing networks are especially
popular for downloading television
programs. Sites such as Limewire (www.
limewire.com), well-known for sharing
of music files, are also heavily trafficked
by users downloading popular television
programs, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
to the Gilmore Girls, much of which is
available at no cost and it is not always
clear as the legality of the downloads.
A wide variety of sites also offer legal
downloads of television programs for
a fee (e.g., http://showsplanet.com/,
http://fasttvdownloads.com/,
http://
www.tvcentral.org). Viewers join these
sites, pay a fee, and then download any
of thousands of television programs
and view them on the computer or a
television set connected to an Internet
access device.
A
nother increasingly popular
video aggregator online is Apple’s
iTunes Music Store, which made
its name selling copyright-protected
music files for download to iPods or other
MP3 devices (www.itunes.com). With
the video iPod (and other video capable
devices) on the market, selling videos
for downloading was a logical next step.
Among the options available for the online
consumer are buying an entire season of
a TV show such as Desperate Housewives
at a discount, downloading any of more
than 3,000 Music Videos, or hundreds of
22
television shows to download and watch,
for universities large and small to let
ad-free at $1.99 an episode. Programs
their alumni or others tune in online to
are provided from a diverse array of TV
collegiate sports from anywhere in the
providers, including ABC, NBC, MTV,
world.
ESPN, Sci Fi Channel, Comedy Central,
Disney, Nickelodeon and Showtime.
The financers of online video
Fox Entertainment provides via iTunes
Much online video is available at no
downloadable episodes of 24 and Prison
cost to the viewer. Some of this video is
Break. Viewers can also Create iPodproduced by individuals or organizations
compatible versions of their home movies
not particularly concerned with the
using iTunes and can
cost of production
buy and send music In this age of TV-show or distribution since
videos and TV shows
it may be private
downloading
will
the
as gifts to anyone with
citizens producing the
an email address. They role of the affiliate be
video for their own
can organize their undercut?
interests. Or some
videos into playlists,
of the producers of
and limit children’s access to videos.
the online video may be groups with a
Viewers can also access reviews and
public relations, public affairs or publicity
ratings of shows from other viewers.
agenda.
One question that arises for network
Yet, much of the most-viewed online
affiliates in this age of TV-show
video, or the video with the highest
downloading is: will the role of the
production value or news focus, is
affiliate be undercut? If viewers can easily
produced by established or emerging
download a show after it has aired, will
news or media companies seeking to
they be less inclined to tune into a re-run
make a profit or to at least off-set their
on a network affiliate? The answer seems
video production and distribution costs.
obvious.
In these cases, there are three main
Stimulating the growth of video
business models taking shape in the
distributed online is digital video startonline video space. These models are
up Brightcove, whose technology enables
advertiser-supported video, sponsored
anyone who produces video to easily and
video and premium on-demand video
inexpensively distribute it for viewing or
content either produced originally for
downloading from various web sites. The
online distribution or recycled from
television or motion pictures. In the
Wall Street Journal reports that groups as
diverse as a Yoruba language and culture
case of advertiser-supported video, this
center in Nigeria, a news site in the Slovak
business model is maturing rapidly.
Republic and a political blog in the U.S.
An example of a popular online video
called Wizbang (www.wizbangblog.com)
service free to the user but supported
are all distributing their video via the web
by advertising is Yahoo Music (http://
using Brightcove technology. Brightcove
music.yahoo.com/). At this site, users
is not the only provider of Internet video
can access thousands of free music
technology spurring the wave of diverse
videos on demand, but before the music
online producers. Others such as XOS
video starts the user has to watch a 30Technologies are making it possible
second commercial, typically the same
23
Together).
BMW worked with its
advertising agency, Fallon Worldwide, to
oversee the production. The Hire action
films are no longer available for viewing
online but a new series of six comic
Hire films is in production (http://www.
bmwusa.com/bmwexperience/films.
htm).
Premium on-demand online video
is also widely available. Prices range
from about a dollar for previously
aired television shows to high priced
anime features and new Hollywood
motion picture releases. Among the
most financially successful online video
franchises to date is Major League
Baseball’s MLB.tv, which provides live
near-broadcast-quality streaming video
of all its games for a single-season or
monthly fee. Only non-local games are
available to avoid competition with local
TV game broadcasts and attendance
at the games themselves. Millions of
viewers have already signed up for www.
mlb.com, making it a financially lucrative
arrangement for professional baseball.
An estimated 800,000 subscribers are
paying $79.95 for the video on the site,
bringing in annual revenues of at least
$68 million (http://www.baltimoresun.
com/business/bal-video0403,0,369978.
story?coll=bal-business-indepth). Other
sports have brought in millions of online
viewers for network video streams,
including more than 5 million to CBS
Corp.’s web site to watch the NCAA
tournament college basketball games for
free.
commercials produced for television.
Users have a variety of options at Yahoo
Music, including registering (users
can view one video without registering
and logging in, but after viewing one
video they must log in, which requires
registration) and customizing the site,
searching for a particular music video,
or watching top 100 videos, including
Shakira’s number-one-ranked “Hips
Don’t Lie.”
One commercial online video
broadcast network in May, 2006
announced the introduction of an
online video upfront buying system
for advertisers trying to reach online
audiences via web video. ROO delivers
more than 40 million video impressions
each month via more than 130 web
sites, permitting targeting audiences by
lifestyle or demographics and delivering
spot advertising (http://biz.yahoo.com/
iw/060501/0125983.html).
Sponsored video production has also
emerged as a significant force in the online
arena. Among the leading sponsors has
been German car manufacturer BMW,
which established BMW Films to produce
a series of award-winning films that were
made available for online distribution at
no cost to viewers (http://www.bmwusa.
com/bmwexperience/films.htm). At a
cost of an estimated $9 million, The Hire
series featured short movies (five or six
minutes) about a risk-taking professional
driver, driving a BMW (http://www.wired.
com/news/culture/0,1284,44323,00.
html).
The movies star major Hollywood
actors such as Madonna and Mickey
Rourke, and are directed by a series of
well-known directors, such as Guy Ritchie
(Snatch), Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon), John Frankenheimer
(Ronin) and Wong Kar-Wai (Happy
The regulators of online video
From a production point of view,
online video faces essentially the same
legal and regulatory environment as
conventional broadcast television. Issues
such as rights, royalties and residuals,
24
potentially libelous speech and the First
potentially subject to restrictions from
Amendment all pertain to online video.
any country, regardless of whether that
From a distribution perspective, online
country is part of the video providers
video faces relatively fewer regulatory
intended audience.
Unless access
restrictions than conventional television,
is blocked by the provider, a local
because much of the prevailing FCC
government might interpret some
restrictions on content indecency do not
downloadable video files as offensive to
apply. The principal regulatory restrictions
local tastes or in violation of local laws,
are in the form of limiting under-age
and might impose punishments, ranging
access to mature video content and other
from fines to imprisonment. In addition,
sex-related matters (e.g., eliminating
some governments such as China have
online child pornography) and preventing
blocked access to web sites, including
pirated video distribution. Two relatively
some that provide news video from the
U.S.
comprehensive legal guides to blogging
and podcasting, including
video, are available for free Unlike most earlier generations of
from the Electronic Frontier television, the age of online video
Foundation (http://www.
innovation is a playing field open
eff.org/bloggers/lg/)
and
Creative Commons (http:// to virtually anyone.
wiki.creativecommons.
org/Podcasting_Legal_Guide).
Some
The digital technologies of
FCC rule changes may have an indirect
production and protection
Fueling the explosive growth in online
impact on online video distribution.
CyberJournalist.net reports that the
video is the emergence of increasingly
FCC’s changes in cross-media ownership
affordable and powerful, low-cost and
rules have the potential to increase the
easy-to-use digital video-production
number of converged newsrooms that
technologies. The price of high-end digital
share resources to create stronger Web
video cameras has fallen dramatically
presences. CyberJournalist.net Publisher
in recent years, making it far more cost
Jonathan Dube observes, “We may see
effective to shoot quality video rather
more local sites like tbo.com, the excellent
than film. At the same time, consumerMedia General site in Tampa that serves
friendly devices such as cell phones
as the online home for both the Tampa
and digital cameras capable of shooting
Tribune and WFLA,” he said. “If that
decent quality video have flooded the
happens, we’d see more robust local
market. Editing digital video has also
news sites—with better ability to package
become easier and cheaper, whether
newspaper and video content—but we
using systems running Macintosh,
might also see fewer local news sites
Windows or Open Source software, video
and thus less competition.” (http://www.
post-production has never been simpler,
cyberjournalist.net/news/000420.php)
at least from a technical point of view. One possible regulatory threat to
Many companies are providing lowonline video is the global nature of the
cost video editing software or bundling
Internet. This global quality makes any
video editing software at no cost with the
online video producer and distributor
purchase of new computers. Examples
25
include iMovie from Apple, Premiere
from Adobe and Studio from Pinnacle
Systems. A variety of web sites offer free
video editing online, as well as virtual
communities for sharing video. Examples
include Videoegg.com, Eyespot.com,
Jumpcut.com and Grouper.com. All that
is required is registering with the site.
In addition, most video software now
makes it relatively easy to embed digital
watermarks and other devices to protect
copyright and intellectual property for
online distribution.
Unlike most earlier generations
of television, the age of online video
innovation is a playing field open
to virtually anyone. Little technical
expertise is needed to experiment.
Nor are huge amounts of cash or other
resources required, although access to
millions of dollars certainly doesn’t hurt.
Yet, when Philo Farnsworth invented
electronic television, the germ of the
idea came when he was just a 13-yearold farmer’s son, with little in the way of
resources beyond his own creative mind
and initiative. The question today is
where can the next generation of pioneers
find their inspiration, their field of online
video dreams? There is no simple, single
answer.
I found his inspiration for this article
one day many months ago when I had a
few moments to explore the then newly
launched Google Video search engine.
Browsing under the television show
heading, and after slogging through
dozens of episodes of Charlie Rose, I
discovered a series I have long enjoyed:
The Twilight Zone. Scanning through
the descriptions of the various episodes
available on-demand (full program in
high resolution for $.99 or $1.99 each), he
located a favorite: “Perchance to Dream.”
With a title derived playfully from
Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and a screenplay
written by Charles Beaumont, the
episode tells the story of a sleep-deprived
man terrified of the dreams he might
encounter if he falls asleep. It begins
with a familiar voice inviting the viewer
to enter “the middle ground between
light and shadow, between science and
superstition … between the pit of man’s
fears and the summit of his knowledge.”
As television enters the online age, Rod
Serling’s invitation might still serve as a
guide to those seeking inspiration in the
television dimension of imagination.
- Copyright © 2006 by John V. Pavlik
John V. Pavlik is professor and chair of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at the School of
Communication, Information and Media Studies at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, where he
is also director of The Journalism Resources Institute.
26